Killgallon’s Sentence Composing Strategies


Chapter 1
Activity One:

Practice 1 –
The second sentence is easier to read because sentence parts are divided into meaningful sections.

Practice 2 –
  1. B
  2. B
  3. B
  4. A
  5. B
  6. A
  7. B
  8. A
  9. B
  10. A

Activity Two:

Practice 1 –
  1. The rear of the car lifted up into the air for a moment and then it thumped down with a muddy splash.
  2. Then it moved around the side of the car.
  3. At the back the animal snorted, a deep rumbling growl that blended with the thunder.
  4. The big raised tail blocked their view out of all the side windows.
  5. It sank its jaws into the spare tire mounted on the back of the Land Cruiser and, in a single head shake, tore it away.

Then it moved around the side of the car. The big raised tail blocked their view out of all the side windows. At the back the animal snorted, a deep rumbling growl that blended with the thunder. It sank its jaws into the spare tired mounted on the back of the Land Cruiser and, in a single head shake, tore it away. The rear of the car lifted up into the air for a moment and then it thumped down with a muddy splash.


Practice 2 –
  1. It was the work of the rushing gust – but then without those doors there did stand the lofty and shrouded figure of the Lady Madeline of Usher.
  2. There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame.
  3. As if the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the potency of a spell, the huge antique panels to which the speaker pointed threw slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and ebony jaws.
  4. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold – then, with a low, moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated.

As if the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the potency of a spell, the huge antique panels to which the speaker pointed threw slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust – but then without those doors there did stand the lofty and shrouded figure of the Lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold – then, with a low, moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated.